The Republican party establishment has abandoned people like me.

I had the privilege of casting my first vote for President for Ronald Reagan in 1980. The values that President Reagan championed during my young adulthood…values I hold dear…liberty, self-reliance, personal responsibility, limited government, respect for the Constitution and the rule of law…seem like relics of a bygone era.

Our Federal Government has grown so bloated and its’ regulatory structure is so vast to extend into every aspect of American life…an influence I experience every day in my medical practice and an influence the kids and families our practice serves experience every day as well. Thanks to regulations issued from the Department of Health and Human Services, I have 80 pages of handouts from my specialty society to determine what we should charge (and are required to document) during an office visit. I regularly interact with educators struggling on a daily basis to deal with the mandates of a bureaucracy far removed from the challenges our kids and parents face on a daily basis.

I’m a life member of the Republican Party. I generously supported the party and many of its’ candidates for many years. Unfortunately, it’s time to recognize that the guys we sent to Washington to drain the swamp chose instead to befriend the alligators.

Following the massive bailout of the financial services industry, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in 2008, the President’s enormous “stimulus” in 2009, and the bribes and back room deals that led to Obamacare in 2010, the American people restored control of the House of Representatives to the Republican party. In turn, the national and state party establishments have been exposed as posers and frauds. They give lip service to the values the Party claims to represent…but in the end, the power and enormous financial rewards offered by institutions with the money to influence the regulatory behemoth are too great…and the rage of the establishment toward those in the party who insist we stand on principle is all-consuming.

Matt Lynch is a good man. I saw him every Sunday at the church we used to attend. I was invited to pray for him and his wife when she was diagnosed with cancer. His small law office is around the corner from my office and the signs that appear along the highway are a daily reminder of Matt’s love for our country and his love of freedom. Matt served our community well as a township trustee, and was elected two years ago to serve in Columbus as our State Representative.

Matt has been a champion of conservative principles in Columbus. He voted against the budget supported by our governor because he believed the budget didn’t go far enough to constrain spending. He and his Republican colleagues in the State House and Senate voted down the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. When our governor (with the support of the party establishment and the Ohio Hospital Association) sought to circumvent the will of the legislature by going to the State Controlling Board to implement the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, Matt and five of his colleagues filed a lawsuit against the governor…incurring the wrath of the Republican establishment in the process.

Few men embody everything that’s wrong with the Republican Party establishment more than our former congressman, Steve LaTourette. LaTourette became enraged when the voters responsible for reestablishing the House majority in 2010 actually expected the party to do something to roll back the massive expansion of government in the first two years of the Obama administration. In response, he resigned from Congress after the filing deadline for the 2012 primary election, allowing his friends in party leadership to nominate Dave Joyce as his hand-picked successor in a Republican district. LaTourette in turn became the head of the Main Street Partnership…a lobbying organization with a union and corporate-funded PAC set up to raise millions to protect less conservative Republicans from more conservative primary challengers.

Who contributes to the Main Street Partnership? The largest contributor to the PAC is the United Transportation Union , followed by the Seafarers International Union. Among organizations tied for third place, we have these great champions of conservatism…

The National Education Association
Pfizer
General Electric (parent company of NBC and MSNBC)
The Teamsters Union
Novartis
The Airline Pilots Association
Wellpoint (America’s largest health insurance company)
Merck
Aetna

In retribution for Matt Lynch’s stand against Governor Kasich’s override of the legislature and implementation of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, Steve LaTourette placed the resources of his organization behind his daughter in law in a primary challenge for Matt’s seat in the Ohio House.

The Main Street Partnership has spent $111,400 in this primary election to defeat Matt, including nearly $28,000 to mail this ad to my house from our establishment governor intentionally seeking to smear and distort Matt’s record.

Dave Joyce may be a very nice guy…I’ve never had the opportunity to meet him…but why would the NEA, the owners of NBC/MSNBC, the Teamsters and Americas largest health insurers and drug companies be embracing such a “solid conservative?” Because Dave Joyce may be a good family man…but he’s NO conservative!

What sends me over the edge are ads like these from Dave that I see on a regular basis in my Facebook feed. The paperwork and administrative burdens imposed on our practice by the government and their partners in the insurance and pharmacy benefit industries have become nightmarish. We’re struggling to care for our patients while keeping our services affordable. Thousands of positions are being eliminated at Cleveland Clinic, doctors are being replaced by nurses and physicians are being forced into early retirement. Dave claims to be a champion of repealing Obamacare, but when push came to shove, Dave split from the majority of his Republican colleagues AND VOTED TO FUND OBAMACARE.

That’s why the unions, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, the teachers’ union and those counting on cheap labor from soon to be amnestied violators of our immigration laws are pouring money into the PAC funding Dave Joyce’s campaign.

I’m desperate for someone willing to stand on principle and fight for my values…my family, my practice and my patients. I can identify with a man willing to stand up to institutions seeking to crush him and those like him. That’s why I’m voting for Matt Lynch.